Speaking at a shareholders’ meeting in Japan, Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn warned that car prices would rise regardless of the strength of the market because of the soaring cost of steel. Prompted by Baosteel’s agreement with Rio Tinto to accept a near doubling in iron ore prices, Ghosn was warning that all steel makers would feel the […]

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MetalMiner posted an article in late March on the possible peak of tin, calling the top to the market a few weeks early. From that point, tin continued to power on up to $25,500/ton on the LME, but since then, the correction we called out has come through with a vengeance as prices have dropped to […]

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China has come under a lot of adverse press during the last year or two over its investments in mining resources around the world, particularly in Africa. The suggestion is that China is trying to corner the world market on raw materials, depriving the rest of the world from access. What is the reality, and are […]

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In spite of statements from China in Bloomberg, stating that $2400/ton is the support level for lead and that China is cutting back exports to support the world price, the metal has continued to fulfill its image and has sunk like the proverbial lead balloon. The reality is China, which produces a third of the world’s lead, […]

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Return you say? Since when was a penny made from steel? Well, for any of you too young to remember (thankfully that includes me) the US minted steel pennies during the second World War. The rising cost of metals has meant the US mint is losing $100 million a year making 7.4 billion pennies and […]

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Is the rise in metal prices really so inevitable? We usually place considerable weight on articles appearing in Purchasing.com, but I have to take issue with a feature from yesterday which suggests metals will continue to rise on the back of power problems around the world. Certainly the first quarter of this year has seen […]

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Contrary to expectations earlier this year that the weak dollar would boost exports and shield domestic producers from imports, it looks like US imports are set to rise again, according to the Steel Business Briefing. Sighting import license applications SBB says US applications for April came in at 2.64m metric tons, 16% higher than the […]

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We’re pleased to announce that MetalMiner was recognized as both a Blog of the Day and a Best of the Web Blog last month. To learn more, please check out our press release on this exciting news.
As time passes, MetalMiner looks forward to providing even more sourcing and trading intelligence for the global metals markets, […]

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This is Part Two of a two part series. You can read Part One here
The Baltic Dry Index which tracks the costs of chartering a ship for commodities such as iron ore and coal - we wrote about this earlier in the year - has risen by over 60% according to this Financial Times article. […]

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Way, way back in the early 1990s, my mood ring and slap bracelet were the coolest thing since kindergarten. Remember those? Slap bracelets didn’t stick around for long, probably because of parents like mine banning them from the house. Mood rings, on the other hand, came and went throughout the years. Apparently, they were big […]

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